I promise they didn’t pay me to write this

I just got off the phone with Jeff Wolinsky, VP of Publishing at Proquest, and a colleague of his in Marketing (whose name I missed, because I suck at names, sorry). They gave me answers about either immediate solutions for the problems I’d identified, or explanations of the steps Proquest is taking to fix the known issues. All in all, I’m satisfied that we can work with this vendor to resolve our issues. (And they not only didn’t pay me to write this, they didn’t ask me to. They did tell me that they’re also Metallica fans, though.)

I’m still un-thrilled about sending out a product that’s imperfect, but, then, hey, I’m the same woman launching a circ policy on Monday, and my feelings on that one are still pretty bloody. And I’m sympathetic to the fact that we wanted to migrate before the semester started, and the development cycles of vendors don’t always match up to the North American academic calendar. Would I prefer a perfect product on the best day for libraries? Yes. Can I understand why there isn’t one? Also yes.

And as a woman who doesn’t know where her day went and has a to-do list the size of Montana, I very much appreciate that I got that call and the time they spent. Cynics can say it’s PR and damage control, and they’ll be right: of course it is. But so many of the vendors libraries deal with don’t even bother, and instead treat us like pawns, or worse, ants to be brushed off or ignored, that when someone reaches out, offers information and explanations of how they’re trying to resolve the issues… that deserves to be recognized.

For those keeping track, I’m listening to Pearl Jam, Yellow Ledbetter live at Benroya Hall, and snacking on grapes. Far healthier, on a lot of levels.

And, in case this internet power thing works even better than I think it does: Iris and Jason deserve raises.